By Parkie Mbozi

THE STORY about UPND President Hakainde Hichilema’s involvement in the privatization of state companies in the 1990s has been trending on all forms of mass media platforms – both online and offline and social and mainstream media. The story came about after FDD President Edith Nawakwi, a former minister during the time, ‘’revealed’ what she alleged as foul play on Hichilema’s part in the process.

Opinions are divided on the issue. Conspiracy theories abounds. One school of thought is that the story always surfaces just before elections, simply for political mileage, but dies down again post-elections due to lack of credibility. If winning public opinion and voters is what is at stake here, the questions is how effective is the strategy? In this era of interactive media, where media audiences have a say, I decided to dedicate this article to gauging the readers’ views on the matter.

To do that I viewed readers’ comments to a News Diggers online (Facebook) story titled, “Govt might act on Nawakwi’s allegations against HH – Dora”. The story’s intro reads, “CHIEF Government Spokesperson Dora Siliya says government will soon inform citizens should it decide to act on former finance minister Edith Nawakwi’s allegations against UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema.”

News Diggers is regarded as a credible media outfit on almost all fronts, hence my pick. This story carried 403 comments and 13 shares as at 06:00 Hrs on Wednesday, September 2, 2020. Due to lack of space I have published the first 35 comments, unedited, and in the order that they appear on the site. The names of the authors are also provided as published. Both the story and ALL the 403 comments can be accessed on:

https://web.facebook.com/Diggers.News/?_rdc=1&_rdr

Here go the reader views:

Gospelson Kamawu: How I wish they could also act on allegations of Mukula, FIC report and GBM’s claims of him knowing who was spearheading and financing the gassing issues across the country.

Vincent Muchiso: My President Edger Changwa Lungu can’t afford to make such mistakes to waste time petty issues. You’re making the president unpopular ba MMD.

Andy Hanny: I want president Lungu to tell nation how he acquired wealth so fast in 15 months. Taking into account that in 2015 he declared his assets at 2 million kwacha, but 15 months later his assets jumped to 23 million kwacha. We however note that his salary and allowances for the period could have increased his assets by less than 800 000 kwacha. Mr Lungu doesn’t own any business. We need a complehasive report.

Mcdonald Mudenda: But madam Nawakwi was then the finance minister and the whole entire MMD cabinet ministers approved that actually there are the ones who called me HH but to day only HH is being blamed I think to end this matter those MMD former ministers should be called sit together other than targeting one person.

Sinkala Derrick: Senseless,governments that meant well for the nation failed to find anything against him and honesty do we have normal people in this government

Victor Zulu: Let them act so that we can sort this issue once and for all,then after that HH must sue Nawakwi and the PF government cos i am very much sure that he is innocent.

George Malupande: The government is scared of HH winning next year that’s why it’s doing so and why did it fail to find the owner of the 48 houses and the fire tenders and also failed to do justice to Hon Chitotela upon finding him with trunks of money??
We also need justice to those cases.

Joseph Kalaba Kaoma: Dull government in history instead of focusing on the economy busy digging archives meant to destroy a single person.

Sipho Fair Mufwafwi: Its high time the church rose and showed its relevance. Cant we feel united as a nation?? Everyday is about battles at the expense of moving the nation as one. The atmosphere our politicians have created isnt health.

David Simbayi: Dora should be thanking what killed HE the president of the republic of zambia ??, mhsrip because if Mr Sata was alive you should have been in jail by now for dubiously awarding a to some Italian company to supply the Radar at the then Lusaka International Airport which was Never Delivered to zambia ??, Dora you are not the right person to talk about corruption, because you stick corruption yourself, shame on you.

Namasiku Wasilota: Last kicks of a dying horse. Less than a year remaining. Prepare yourselves. Most of you will be in jail and a small fraction will retire kuma “famu”
And while you’re at it, Nawakwi should also explain the role she played back then as finance minister naiwe wamene na maize scandal yako.

Phyllis Musambo Sialumba: It just shows they are the ones doing this, corruption in the regime is the order of the day, they don’t act but act on something that won’t benefit us currently, 48 houses we never head govt saying they will act on those alleged no owner.
Won’t be surprised to hear HH will be arrested for privatisation, no wonder they allowed Nawakwi on ZNBC its an agenda, God is still on the throne, you can’t do such to your own

Chola Mwale: Is there an accepted limit of sinking low for any govt? Or a govt is allowed to sink as low as they wish?

David Ngosa: Corrupt mind has.evil.desire nothing good from corrupt mind always fault finding looking for defence we need to move forward 48ghost houses died nature death fire tenders nothing hidden that will not be exposed with God all things are possible at heart

Pearson Lungu: The failing of Bill 10, has brought the privatisation of the mines, apon realizing that its a none starter, they reduced it to the Hotel, house, and a farm, after been answered, of how a farm and house was been bought and who where the real owners, they jumped to a Hotel, after they realising that he was clean, they are asking why he has shares, lets see what next, bally ni bally. I love noise makers, coz they start from academy, to primary, primary to, secondary, up colleges and universities.
Teddy Simukonda: But he has been telling you to go to court , what are you waiting for?????, pipo are scared to report him…mu Zambia.

Malama CM: 30yrs down the drain government and Nawakwi are realizing now that HH committed a crime? This is a faster way of facilitating another pay check for HH because you know you will loose

Moses Mwala: This will be nice for a precedence because after this, sale of zamtel to Lapgreen will be probed, radar systems, fire tenders, ambulances, Avic roads, mukula trees etc will equally demand for commission of inquiries. We shall see how many will be caught in these webs and so we welcome any inquiry.
Muka Obly: This Woman does not learn from the past. Remember what she used to do to sata and what she went through after mmd lost elections. She is one of the people that made rb loose terribly to sata after she came up with the policy of selling all grz schools and people voted them out.

Mukusa Muksa Mumba: You are just trying to divert people’s attention from the FIC report where your names are

George Bwalya: When the Malawi zambian maize scandal was reported in which yourself was involved, you never allowed anyone to study it. That’s the confirmation then that you sponsored nawakwi with her nonsense, nonsense that the same story comes before the elections, why not study the cost of fire tenders and toll gates? Why not study why corruption cases die natural deaths, or take keen interest to ascertain your own failure to let the dollar reach k20? Why is dora only at politics of personal attacks than issues? Zambians are tired of the same nonsense!! It’s nonsense that when you were in MMD you failed to arrest HH for privatisation, why today ? at a time when the boat is sinking at a fast rate, PF was king cobra!!!

Moidah Hamunali: Dull how about zamtel issue during her time as minister of communication, shameful without shame on her face.

Haggai Gondwe: Yes all who participated in Privatization must investigated. Up to those who sold Zamtel to LapGreen of Libya. Thereafter, we demand for the publication of the Zamtel Report which late President Sata commissioned. These are very interesting times.

Ken Peters: Let’s also have the FIC report. Investigations should also include the sale of Zamtel and single sourcing of airport radar.

Hlupo Ziba: Well! Maybe the law enforcement agencies should act on the revelations from Chellah Tukuta if that’s how the system works under the current regime.

MD Rain Mvula: Your government is so defensive when it comes to accountability??
Levy Ngulube Sr. We knew this game from the start but you know that “WE ARE MILES AHEAD OF YOUR GAME PLAN”.After the failure of BILL10,we knew something strange will come up!!!! Let us also have the FIC REPORT 2019.
Jimmy Muteba Kahokola Just act now … not might act…we want to know the truth….it’s like what HH has said many times not enough…your hero will be the first to be jailed.

Noritah Mwanza: It will expose a lot of things including the one who sold Zamtel.

Della Nila: While you are strategizing on how to act on HH. We the Zambian people are waiting for our FIC report. It’s long overdue.

Mutinta Mulonda: What are they going to act on that has not been acted on previous governments? PF trying to use gimmicks to arrest HH by using a washed up politician in Edith Nawakwi who should be charged for her incompetence as well.

Greyson Shilukobo: Please go to PACRA and check who the shareholders are. I am so shocked with this ignorance and lucky of knowledge on their part.

Mary Taguma Bilsborough: What Zambians want to know is what is in the fic report. This HH corruption allegations by you guys does not sound well. You can’t be pointing fingers at anyone regarding corruption, you’re the masters of corruption, deal with it.

Jackson Thompson Dora is finished. 10 months left in office and she continues to butcher her career and image beyond repair. We will see where idiots like this will end up past August 2021 – there are no tricks that will make Zambians change their mind.

Conclusion: Going by the sampled views of the readers, anyone wishing to cash in some political mileage from the HH privatization story is clearly flogging a dead horse. The following Bemba proverb seems to hold: Mwaloba lyauma

The author is a media, governance and health communication researcher and scholar with the Institute of Economic and Social Research, University of Zambia. He is reachable on [email protected].

Prof. Michelo Hansungule

Zambian politics has descended into gutter politics without any decency or shame under the current government. A serving minister of Defence and former minister of Finance describe a citizen as a ‘criminal’ to the media yet this citizen has neither been tried nor convicted of a criminal offence, ever heard of that? Isn’t this promoting lawlessness to the extreme? How can a citizen be criminal before any judicial process? Doesn’t this define the authors as unfit for public office let alone the office of a minister?

Yet it is an offence to take the law into your own hands and we are all persuaded to not resort to self-help regardless of circumstances. Only in a few exceptions does the law permit self-defence, defence of property and defence of others and in this case in accordance with strictly defined circumstances. If a citizen resorts to self-help against another, they can be prosecuted and imprisoned for it.

Defence Minister Davis Chama and former Finance Minister Edith Nawakwi took turns this week lambasting opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema as a ‘criminal’ over his role in the privatisation of the public economy some thirty years ago. Could it be that it is because they are criminals themselves which is why they easily can recognise a criminal when they see one? How do we explain senior government officials so easily using the word ‘criminal’ against the grain of the law if they are not?

And what is this in terms of teaching our children how to behave in leadership, or does it not matter? In these days of social media, children are not only watching leaders behaving like toddlers calling others their political opponents ‘criminals’ and shouting bring it on, bring it on referring to court contempt threats and you are a minister or former minister?

In the week, Edith Nawakwi fed the media with serious allegations against Hakainde Hichilema regarding his role during the privation process. Though she purports to be opposition herself, she was intent on defaming her colleague to the worst possible degree and shifted all the blame to him as if he was the minister responsible for finance while she was a mere consultant. Among other things, she accused him of undervaluing assets of Ramcoz, selling to himself and buying the Lima Bank house in Kabulonga using his position as chairman of the privatisation committee and failing to declare an interest during negotiations for the sell of the Mosiotunya hotel in Livingstone.

Before Hakainde could respond, including KBM, Sean Tembo, YALI jumped into the bandwagon and found Hichilema guilty of the charges. KBM said Hichilema failed to disclose interest in the Mosiotunya hotel negotiations but suggested he should not be arrested to avoid chaos in the country. Sean Tembo who pretended to ‘sit as a court in the matter’ while ‘acquitting Hichilema on Ramcoz and Lima bank house, found him ‘guilty’ of failing to declare interest in the Mosiotunya hotel negotiations and sell. Interestingly he never found Edith to have defamed Hichilema in the Ramcoz and Lima bank affairs despite finding Hichilema on firmer grounds on the two issues? YALI which has always been on the side of the ruling party the Patriotic Front even described the privation process of the hotel as ‘theft’ by Hichilema whom they accused him of selling the hotel to himself.

Yet all these comments from other opposition leaders came before Hichilema laid out his case. This raises serious questions regarding the calibre and character of our politics? These are people aspiring to lead us. They can’t even as much pose so as to hear from the other side before venturing their verdicts. And as it turned out unfortunately for them, Hichilema’s response in both the letter of demand to Ms Nawakwi and in the statement of claim he filed in court demonstrated that the accusations were a cocktail of lies and using dates and names of the people involved in those transactions and the period involved, detailed the lie on each.

Of course, coordinating this tapestry of lies is president Edgar Lungu, the main beneficiary of the lies. Most people do not know Edgar Lungu, those who support and who oppose him, both sides do not know him. Edgar is a complicated figure. Remember, starting from his party, his ascendancy to lead the party was controversial. There were two conventions his came after the first convention which he just ignored and organised his. Following that he ordered some judges to affirm his leadership and the rest is history. In 2016 when Hichilema dared complain against the election in which he was controversially declared loser, Edgar simply banned the Constitutional Court from hearing Hichilema’s complaints. With this history in mind, it is quite clear most of those who jumped the bandwagon and made remarks finding Hichilema guilty as charged by Edith Nawakwi did so as Edgar’s surrogates, a suggestion Hichilema made.

How do we address this problem? It is simple. Action should be taken against those who defame others. Hakainde Hichilema must sue all those that have written things and made statements defaming him. Sue YALI, sue opposition and other politicians and other leaders who have made unbalanced comments and statements against him. This is the best way to promote values in society. Sue them and if they run foul of the law lock them up for contempt, no empathy. Clean them up of all their money, let them toil for years paying court costs arising from their irresponsible careless conduct. If you use empathy and forgive them, you are promoting impunity and bad leadership will continue. You are imparting bad values on our children that lying is Ok and there is nothing wrong with defaming others. So, I am calling on Hakainde to clean them all up with hefty bills arising from court processes. Let them walk naked and turn to streets to beg food. This way, politics will move towards decency and politicking become value based.

By Fred M’membe, President of the Socialist Party

As we have consistently been warning, our country’s economy has collapsed.

And one didn’t need to be an economic expert to foresee the consequences of the irrational path that was being pursued by our rulers – unbridled borrowing and irrational expenditure.

All the advice given to them – even by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and their other multilateral and bilateral partners – was ignored and arrogantly scoffed at.

Today they are like soaked chickens – humbled by the reality they can’t ignore or conceal and do not know how to resolve.

We are clearly headed for very serious economic challenges. Our economy is shrinking at a frightening rate.

Next year’s budget has been reduced by 47 percent. This means that the 2021 budget will only be K56,180 bn. The government’s wage bill was K25,601bn at the beginning of this year. And debt repayment was K33.726bn. This gives us a total of K59,327bn – which is K3,149bn more than our 2021 budget.

This means that without very serious downsizing, retrenchment, or massive international assistance, the government will only barely manage to service the debt and pay salaries in 2021 and nothing else.

What does this mean for the Zambian people, especially the poor? More suffering, more agony, more poverty, more despair!

Zambians have no sensible alternative but revolutionary change if they have to harbor any hope of a reversal of fortunes. And only a revolutionary party – the Socialist Party – with a revolutionary program can deliver the nation out of this hell.